Equality

The American Foundation for Equal Rights is dedicated to protecting and advancing equal rights for every American. As the sole sponsor of the federal court challenge of California’s Proposition 8, known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger, AFER is leading the fight for marriage equality and equality under the law for every American. AFER has assembled a legal team led by Theodore Olson and David Boies to demonstrate that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution by denying millions of people equal protection under the law.

Each year, we provide more than 40,000 low-income rural Californians with free legal assistance and a variety of community education and outreach programs. Half of our resources are committed to multi-client cases that grapple with the root causes of poverty. The impact of CRLA’s litigation has touched the lives of literally millions of low-income individuals, improving conditions for farm workers, new immigrants, single parents, school children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and entire communities. It has also been necessary to bring our advocacy to a national audience in order to maintain our ability to address the more political and controversial issues we find in rural communities.

We have a specific program, Proyecto Poderoso, that seeks to educate workers and their families about LGBTQ issues, including the right to be free of harassment and discrimination.